A Word
by fringeperson
Summary: How it could have gone between Gabriel and Lucifer. Spoilers. Complete, don't own, one-shot.


"Over a girl," Lucifer scoffed.

Gabriel kept himself (and his sword) between his brother and the Winchesters as they moved to get Kali out of the room, and hopefully out of the building. Out of the neighbourhood would be kind of minimally ideal though, just in case.

"Gabriel, really? I mean, I knew you were slumming but..."

Gabriel kept his sword raised and his face impassive.

"I hope you didn't catch anything," Lucifer said with what actually looked like genuine concern as his fingers twitched in a disgusted way at the idea.

"Lucifer," Gabriel said softly as he kept an ear trained on the boys. He didn't want to chance them hearing the conversation he was about to have with his eldest brother. "You're my brother, and I love you."

Lucifer smiled a little at that.

"But you're a great big bag of dicks," Gabriel tacked on.

Lucifer blinked.

"What did you just say to me?" he demanded, finger pointed to himself indignantly as he took an almost menacing step forward.

Okay, quite menacing. Lucifer was covered in blood, after all. But Gabriel did have his sword out and between them.

"You heard me," Gabriel snapped. "Look at yourself, Luci! Look how far you've _fallen_."

Lucifer winced at that very pointedly used word.

"Boo hoo," Gabriel mocked a little. "Daddy was mean to me, so I'm going to break his things!"

"Watch your tone," Lucifer warned at that.

"No, you watch it!" Gabriel snarled. He wasn't going to get into Luci's fight with Mikey, he really wasn't, but it had just been so damn long and he had some things he wanted to get off his chest now that Luci wasn't trapped in the Pit any more and he actually had a chance to say them. "Dad loved you best, Luci. More than Mikey, more than me. He let you get away with all sorts of shit, and you know it."

"Do I?" Lucifer countered lightly.

"Oh, what happened with _Job_ springs to mind," Gabriel stated.

Job, who'd been a good guy. A devout servant of God. But Lucifer had suggested that if God took away all the nice things that God had given him, then Job wouldn't be such a good guy any more – and God had gone ahead and given Lucifer all the tools he needed to make Job's life as wretched as it was possible to be.

It was after Job had proven God right about him that Michael had trapped Lucifer in the Pit. He'd decided he couldn't take Luficer's defiance of what Mikey himself perceived as their Father's will.

Lucifer scowled now at the reminder.

"If you're here for Michael -" Lucifer began.

"Screw him," Gabriel cut his elder brother off. "In all honesty, I'd really like to give you two matching scars. Something else for you two dicks to have in common."

"Why, you disloyal..." Lucifer said, his finger wagging at his little brother as her struggled for the right word to finish his sentence.

"Oh I'm loyal," Gabriel corrected.

"To who?" Lucifer asked, scoffing. "These so-called gods?"

"To Dad," Gabriel answered sharply. "You remember Him? You haven't talked for a while. Didn't even think to go looking for Him when you got free. Mikey hasn't talked to him for a while either, doesn't leave Heaven if he can help it, and Dad's not hanging out up there any more."

Lucifer frowned. He'd kind of known that. Kind of. He was wondering what that had to do with their current little stand-off though.

"Do you remember the jobs Dad gave us, way back in the beginning, just a bit after He first made Adam?" Gabriel queried, almost rhetorically. "You were so against them, Dad said you could be the Accuser. Mikey was so against _you_ being against Dad, that He made him the Warrior. Me? I sat there and I listened, and when you and Michael had gone your separate ways I stayed behind. With Dad. He was quiet a while, and then He started crying, He was so _disappointed_ in you both. I said you were both idiots for thinking He didn't have something up His sleeve, which managed to get a chuckle out of Him at least."

Lucifer tensed at the knowledge that he'd made their Father cry. He hadn't ever known about that.

"So, me? I'm the Messenger," Gabriel reminded. "The one who pays real close attention to the things Dad says, and the things he doesn't say, and then I go and tell people what Dad wants them to know when He's not feeling up to going out and telling people for Himself. If I thought I could get you to listen to me without waving this around -" he brandished his sword for emphasis, "- then I might just put it away."

"You have _more_ to say?" Lucifer asked.

"I might have a _Word_ or two," Gabriel said, his green eyes glinting harshly. "After all, I'm the only one of the three of us that Dad's been talking to at all since Michael locked you away after the whole Job thing."

 _In the Beginning, there was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and through the Word, all things were made..._


End file.
